Don Emch, a council candidate who lost in the election, attended the meeting in support of Wartella and called the claims that a recount would be too costly a "red herring."

Gregory Tankersley lost to Lucik by seven votes, but did not request a recount.

Wartella said she was at the polls Nov. 4 for more than 15 hours and heard from many residents who said they had problems inserting their ballots into tabulators. She said she knew she was going to ask for a recount as soon as she heard of the problems.

Election workers later found a small blemish on a darkened area of the ballots that is necessary for them to be scanned by the tabulator, causing them to be rejected. The blemishes were not near any of the candidates' names.

Atlas Township Clerk Tere Onica said that once the blemishes were darkened with ink, the ballots were read without a problem.

Doreen Fulcher, Genesee County Elections director, said it was the first time the county has seen such a problem.

Onica said she was confident the township's voting equipment would hold up to scrutiny, and that she expected the results would be the same in a recount.

Canvasser Dennis Swartz said one of his concerns was why Wartella, being the top vote-getter, would ask for a recount.

"You have an individual who lost by seven votes. That's the key thing," Wartella said.

Canvasser Alexander Isaac said Tankersley's loss was not an issue since he wasn't present at the meeting and hadn't filed any official statement supporting the recount.

It's unclear how much the recount for the one precinct would have cost, according to election officials.